The Killing just won’t die

The Killing, the show that started AMC original programming’s downward trend, is being brought back from cancellation…again. Ryan Reynolds sums up my feelings about this perfectly. Netflix has decided to bring back the now twice cancelled show for six episodes in the hopes that it can finally connect with some sort of audience. It’s a low risk-high reward pick up for Netflix, who used the same resurrection technique to successfully bring back Arrested Development earlier this year. But, do I even have to point out the difference in quality between those two shows? I guess I just did.

Now I’m not going to say that The Killing has no chance to succeed. It was originally marketed as a modern Twin Peaks and never came close to being that type of phenomenon. However, Netflix could be the perfect platform for a show like this, a serialized long form drama that could be both easier to digest and more enjoyable through binge watching instead of as a weekly installment. Think: A homeless man’s The Wire (Like reaaaaaaally homeless). Once again it comes back to quality, is The Killing good enough for anyone to care about six more episodes?

Family Guy got cancelled twice by FOX but now anchors the network’s Sunday night lineup. Somewhere in that same span Seth MacFarlane went from writing episodes of Johnny Bravo to hosting the Oscars and dating Khaleesi. Futurama had a short lived second life on Comedy Central, but never recaptured its original success. As I mentioned earlier Netflix revived Arrested Development earlier this year with some mixed reviews, however, the shows popularity and talks of a movie and/or another season are as alive as ever. These shows all have two things in common: they’re comedies with legitimate cult followings.

Unfortunately for Netflix, The Killing is not funny (on purpose at least) and has little to no following. The six episodes will reportedly finish the series and include the original stars. However, there’s no indication that this will work out…at all. I don’t need to see the future to predict that The Killing will soon become another random choice lost in the seemingly infinite (read: too many) list of mediocre Netflix titles.